The music of water sets the stage for song
Performance inspired by Indigenous activist
I often think of water as musical. It’s a babbling brook, it’s the pitter-patter of raindrops, it’s a singing, steaming tea kettle.
It’s also the dancing fountains put to music at the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas or, closer to home, at Whistling Gardens in Wilsonville which, by the way, is well worth the trip when the irises and peonies are in full bloom.
Water can also be the inspiration for the creation of art.
“Water: An Environmental Oratorio” will be performed this Sunday at Centre in the Square as the final concert of the 100th season of the Grand Philharmonic Choir. The singers will be joined by the group’s youth and children’s choir, as well as the KW Symphony.
The piece was inspired and guided by Indigenous environmental activist Vicki Monague, who opposed a landfill being built over an aquifer in Tottenham. Composed by Stephanie Martin, with lyrics by Paul Ciufo, the piece was workshopped over two years with the Grand Philharmonic Choir.
Stories such as the landfill, where industry and jobs are pitted against the risk to our environment, are far too familiar. We know it all too well locally, with industrial contamination in Elmira and battles over water bottling plants and gravel pits.
The choral piece opens with a riddle:
“Who is ancient but ever new Clad in crystal and veiled in blue Obsidian midnight and cobalt at noon
On whom does all depend Who falls lightly from the heavens high
While rushing, while rushing deeply rushing beneath the earth
Who moves mountains over ageless years
Yet distils in an infant’s tears Dons diamonds in moonlight and vapour at noon
On whom does all life depend? Who is sacred, who is precious, who is life?”
From that first morning coffee and shower to that last sip after brushing our teeth at night, water is a constant in our lives.
We trust that the water coming from our taps is safe and clean, that we will get enough rain to grow our food. We go to great trouble and expense to travel to lakes and oceans to hear the waves, to swim, to boat and to fish.
We need to respect water. The massive cloudbursts that flood our streets and homes, and rising ocean levels that will make low-lying islands disappear. The salt, e-coli and chemicals that have poisoned our wells and aquifers, dangerous icy roads and slippery sidewalks from freezing rain, the drownings.
We often take water for granted because Ontario is rich in freshwater.
“For generations, people had bought into the myth of abundance when it came to water, regarding it pretty much like air — essential, but free for the taking. Use lots, it’s just water,” former Record reporter Bob Burtt wrote in his latest book “Water: Our Sacred Trust.”
We may know better now, but we have to do more.
Like Dr. Seuss’s Lorax, who spoke for the trees, we must all speak up for water, and take responsibility to conserve and protect it at home, work and play.
Tickets for Sunday’s 3 p.m. Grand Philharmonic Choir performance of “Water: An Environmental Oratorio” are $10 to $40 and available at centreinthesquare.com or 519578-1570.
Everyone is also encouraged to donate to Water First, a Creemorebased charity that provides training and education for Indigenous people to manage and sustain their water systems.